THE FRUIT MARKET I9 



volume of business, transportation companies will com- 

 pete for the traffic ; and even when competition 

 amounts to little, material shipping concessions can 

 sometimes be secured by an association having a con- 

 siderable quantity of fruit to handle. 



5. Gradiiig.- -K\\ association can establish a uni- 

 form grade. If this could actually be done in prac- 

 tice it would be a matter of first consequence. Else- 

 where the importance of uniform grading for the 

 general market is elucidated more in detail. The fact 

 is, however, that tremendous difficulties arise when 

 an association endeavors to establish a standard grade; 

 and these difficulties grow rapidly greater as the 

 .standard of grading is advanced. Nevertheless, what- 

 ever approach the association is able to make toward 

 uniform packing and grading is an advantage to the 

 business. 



6. Command of the market. — Certain large markets 

 are at the command of an association handling quan- 

 tities of fruit, though the same markets will not han- 

 dle small and irregular shipments. 



7. Restriction of outpid. — An association, in certain 

 cases, can influence prices in its own favor by control- 

 ling the output to some extent. 



Many of these advantages are so obvious, and 

 apparently so easy to attain, that the fruit-.selling 

 association has been a rather common experiment. 

 There are three fundamental difficulties, however, in 

 the way of their success, and the drawbacks have 

 usually proved more powerful than the advantages. 



